#Worldwide #Information #Blogger #LucSchrijvers: #Update: #anarchist #news and #information all over the world - 16.01.2020

Today's Topics:

   

1.  Aotearoa. (NZ) Tamaki Anarchist Bookfair 2020! - 25 Days
      left (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

2.  "The Greatest Purveyor of Violence": Black Rose Fed
      Statement on U.S. Aggression Against Iran (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  

 3.  Greece, ENANTIA CONCENTRATION IN CIVIL POLICE VIOLENCE:
      PARASKEVI 17/1, 19:00, ESPEROS (PL. GEORGIOU) 
      by Jellyfish [APO]
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  A-Radio Berlin Chile - 13.-19.1.2020: Week of Solidarity
      with the Political Prisoners (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Class War Scotland: Open Letter to Councillor Kerr from
      Class War (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  ait russia: France - "61st act" of "yellow vests" and
      regular marches against pension reform [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  anarkismo.net: A Worker's Story #1 by AWSM - Aotearoa
      Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





A little bit of context: ---- Tamaki Makaurau Anarchists are excited to be hosting the first ever (as far as we know!) anarchist Bookfair in
Tamaki Makaurau on the 27th and 28th of March at the Mount Albert War Memorial Hall! We will have nearly 20 workshops and talks, stalls,
childcare, food and of course books. Possible topics will range from anarchist parenting to new forms of unionism to alternative media to
playback theatre and mau rakau! ---- We need your help ---- We'd love to get as many people as possible here for the bookfair and make it
the best event it can be! For that, we need money. We are already arranging to fly some comrades up from Dunedin to the fair, and currently
in discussions with some anarchists in Australia, Indonesia and the States to see whether we can help get them over. Any funds we raise will
help us do that as well as if possible a Phantom Billboards advertising campaign.

Where will the money go?
It will all go to helping anarchists in Aotearoa first and foremost get up here, then to anarchists overseas (if it's a speaker we will most
likely try and work with other organisations for a tour so the cost is spread amongst groups). Any leftover funds will go towards our fixed
costs for the day (venue, food, equipment hire, advertising, etc.)

You can join us
We are hoping for $2,000 to make this a spectacular event though we acknowledge this may be optimistic! Whatever we can get will help us
make the first ever Tamaki Anarchist bookfair a big success:)

https://chuffed.org/project/tamaki-anarchist-bookfair-2020

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Message: 2






U.S. Army paratroopers being mobilized to the Middle East. ---- Statement by members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation "The
greatest purveyor of violence in the world: my own government." -MLK ---- Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra
unequivocally condemns the U.S. assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq. This is a provocation and an act of imperialist
aggression that adds to a long history of U.S.-led military and economic violence in the Middle East, including the recent crippling
sanctions which most severely impact poor and working class Iranians. This assasination has every possibility of escalating into a large
scale armed conflict - something that would undoubtedly lead to the immiseration of millions in the region.
We share the view of fallen Black freedom fighter and Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. that "The greatest purveyor of violence in
the world: my own government. I cannot be silent." Much of the world has become a scorched battlefield for over two centuries as the dark
shadow of U.S. imperialism, resource extraction, and capital accumulation first spanned the continent, then the globe. Through the
colonization of indigenous peoples in the Americas to imperialist expansion around the world, this great purveyor of violence has displaced,
imprisoned, tortured, enslaved, and killed untold millions. It is no surprise that in our time, through an endless "war on terror" that the
darkest areas of this shadow have engulfed the broader Middle East.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Iran and the Middle East who have suffered greatly from U.S. imperialism. The 1953
CIA-orchestrated coup that ousted Iran's first democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and brought the oppressive shah back
to power made the ground fertile for the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Since then, the U.S. has been directly involved in destabilizing both
Iran, and later, Iraq; first starting with the Iran-Iraq war (1980). The Gulf War of 1990-91, the intermittent bombings as well as the
sanctions and blockade that lasted through the 90s, the 2003 invasion and ensuing occupation, and the battle against ISIS can more
accurately be viewed as a three decade long war waged by the U.S. Intermittent threats of war against Iran, crippling economic sanctions and
drone warfare have finally come to a tipping point. The world waits in horror as lines are drawn in the sand and Trump openly threatens to
commit war crimes in Iran through the targeting of cultural sites. Millions of people who are desperately trying to escape the clutches of
this endless war have fled their homes: the U.S. is guilty of creating the largest refugee and humanitarian crises since WWII. We demand:
U.S. Out of the Middle East!

Image of recent uprising and street protests in Iran.
As working people and revolutionaries in the U.S., we harbor no hostility toward the working people of Iran. In fact, we recognize that
working people in both Iran and the U.S. have far more in common with one another than we will ever have with our respective governments,
bosses and ruling classes.

We also recognize that General Soleimani was no friend to the people of the Middle East and North Africa. Our comrades in The Anarchist
Union of Iran and Afghanistan made as much clear in a recent statement that they released on his assassination:

"Qasem Soleimani was a genocidal man that has killed thousands of men, women, and children in the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. He
lead sieges for Assad and recruited Afghan refugees in Iran, many of them children, to die in the Syrian civil war. This state assassination
was carried out by the United States in the obvious interest of Donald Trump's election and what was done has not been and will not be in
the interests of the people in the Middle East"

- Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan, Jan. 3, 2020
As revolutionary anarchists we condemn U.S. imperialist aggression. We also condemn supporting the political program of the Islamic
government in the name of a bogus "anti-imperialism." We must recognize that governments, nations, politicians, and uniformed authoritarians
will never fight for our collective liberation.

Treating revolution as an exercise in rooting for one side or the other in geopolitical contests has been an abject failure for working
people in all countries. Instead, we stand in solidarity with those who mobilize against Iranian austerity measures, with feminists,
socialists, anarchists, and labor militants who have fought and continue to be repressed by the Islamic Republic. We also stand with the
recent popular rebellion in Iraq as well as the besieged peoples in Syria and Rojava. We see all of these movements from below as part of an
international struggle for liberation. One of the greatest dangers of Trump carrying out this assassination is that it will undermine the
popular movements in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon.

Our responsibility goes beyond simply condemning U.S. imperialist escalation in the Middle East as well as the political program of the
Islamic Republic of Iran. We also must recognize and learn from the failures of the antiwar movement of 2003, which produced some of the
largest protests in human history yet failed to stop the war in Iraq. Today we are left with the U.S. remaining in Iraq, which it has nearly
continuously bombed or deployed troops to for almost thirty years. Generic calls for peace, petitions, symbolic mobilizations, canned
speeches, appeals to the ballot box and pushing within the Democratic Party have to be put aside in favor of mass direct action advancing
the demands of working people who face class warfare every day.

Poster mobilizing for May Day 2008 shut down of West Coasts in protest of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We assert that the only way to stop a war machine is to shut down the economy which enables it through mass disruption of business as usual.
This would look like workers in strategic positions going on strike, social movements blocking or occupying railways, sea ports and military
bases, and mass appeals to those in the military to refuse orders. There is recent precedence for this. During the war in Iraq,
demonstrators shut down the financial district of San Francisco during a mass direct action in 2003, activists in Washington State
temporarily halted military shipments by shutting down the Port of Olympia (the military has not used that port since 2007), 10,000
longshore workers went on strike against the war on May Day in 2008 in all 29 ports on the West Coast, and countless soldiers refused orders
from officers, refused deployment, or went AWOL. While these forms of direct action should be celebrated as small victories, in order to
effectively grind down the gears of the war machine, actions like these need to happen on a mass scale.

We call on all revolutionaries, working people, students, all people of good conscience, both young and old, to build capacity in their
workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, and places of worship in order to materially oppose a war with Iran, and lay the groundwork for
meaningful opposition to future wars. We call on U.S. soldiers to refuse and resist any orders to aid in this escalation and to evade
deployment to Iran or the broader region. They will be enthusiastically welcomed and provided sanctuary and support in popular movements
from below in the US (just as they have in the past). We recognize that it may seem social movements and the left are a long way from
realizing these actions but by pointing to recent examples and building capacity we make these more likely to happen.

While Trump brazenly brags about a two trillion dollar military budget, and weapons manufacturers and the ruling class continue to line
their pockets, those of us from below continue to struggle. People enlist in the military to escape poverty or to unshackle their debt from
student loans, thousands die every year in the U.S. from lack of health insurance, millions are homeless while many more millions of homes
lie empty. We do not want any more wars between nations, but we know that wars between classes are fought every day. It's time to push back
- in Iran, in Iraq, and in the heart of the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.

If you enjoyed this we recommend reading other organizational statements by Black Rose/Rosa Negra including One Month Since the Popular
Revolt in Chile, Kavanaugh and a Feminist Movement Fighting to End Capitalism, and "Mourn the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living" -
Statement on Charlottesville.

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Solidarity with the Popular Protests in Iran!

Generations of Struggle: Interview with an Iranian Anarchist (2005)

BRRN for BDS and Solidarity with Middle Eastern Political Prisoners

Gaza Massacre Marks 70 Years of Al-Nakba: We Demand Justice!

https://blackrosefed.org/statement-on-us-aggression-against-iran-2020/

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Message: 3






CONCENTRATION: PREPARATION 17 / 1.19: 00, EXPERIMENTAL (PL. GEORGIOU) ---- DP word is ON GENDER BIA STATE AND POLICE AFORMI WITH EVENTS OF
BEAM OF 6th DECEMBER PATRA ---- This year 6 the  December -in an environment stubborn repressive attack against the state to those who
agonizontai- found us once more in the streets to keep alive the memory of Alexis, do not forget that a 15 year old child was killed by the
state, 11 years ago. The release of the Corkone cop-murderer and the acquittal of Saraliotis's accomplice sends clear messages about
terrorism and disarmament of society. Despite the terror and climate of fear that the media and government have been vigorously trying to
build, crowds have chosen to find themselves on the road that day. On the afternoon march in Patras, the police reserved for that day a
different treatment for women demonstrators . In the context of the attack launched by Beatings and chemicals  in the demonstrators, MAT men
beat comrades  by exerting sexist violence and addressing threats, insults and gestures . It is clear that the sexual assaults and
harassment of the police against the fighters aim, in addition to the discipline and suppression of the resistance, to punish and humiliate
them who  , as women,  have chosen to revolt and fight against the state, capital and repression.

Eleven years after the assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos, the state's murderous repressive mechanisms continue to attack in the most
violent manner, aiming to discipline those who fight and subjugate the whole of society, showing the true face of the state. From the dozens
of labor killings to wage labor, anti-union laws, and hell-bent camps for refugees and immigrants to invasions and evacuations to occupied
combat sites, the X-rays and the exterminators and chrysothemists At the same time, the fact that our fascist killers are acquitted, our
state is clearly showing that it is targeting. It is aimed primarily at those who resist, to those who raise their heads to those who do not
submit to modern totalitarianism. But it aims, sovereignly and timelessly, for the disappearance of whatever is left over, to plunder and
subjugate the bottom of this world.

Lately all this has become a daily reality. Without having any illusions about the relationship of sovereignty to violence, without having
any illusions that patriarchy and sexism are always a weapon in the repression of repressive mechanisms, the new political management
reserves wood and tortures those who resist, he does not forget to mention here that, among other things, there is also patriarchal
violence. Homophobic attacks by MAT squads on Patision Street in Athens, sexual harassment by camps camped in the Exarchia area, sexual
assaults and insults, outrage and torture of protesters in all the major non-demonstrations. an image of the future reserved for all of us.

All these are acts of the same police whose representatives handed out leaflets in the city's main roads in view of 25 the  November, day to
eliminate violence against women (!!), the same police which reaffirms that the main single peak of domestic violence is domestic violence.
We have no illusions about the "contradiction" of the police talking about gender-based violence at the same time as its main expressor.
This is because, in fact, it is not a contradiction but a deliberate effort to finance the days of struggle and resistance of women around
the world and integrate them, distorting the case of female empowerment.

As for us, as struggling women, we are not terrified because we are not alone. We along with thousands of protesters took to the streets
last 6 to  December, we along with struggling in Chile, our rebel comrades in Chiapas, the revolutionary guerrilla in Rotzava, resisting the
women in Turkey and around the world. If the state thinks that by separating us from our male companions will succeed in crushing us, we
declare that we are still here with our partners next door. It is us who have been sexually assaulted in the course of the 6th December
cops, we are the ones who stood by our tormented companions-arrested on the anti-fascist march of 12 at the GAD headquarters, we are the
ones who mumbled that the passing of one of our deadly women in April 2012 it fits, we are standing next to each other and shouting louder
than any other comrade "AGAINST STATE AND PATRIARCHY FOR EMERGENCY AND ANARCHY" and that is why we do not fight despite being a woman Kes,
but just because we are women!

And we are the ones facing the savagery of the repression that we experienced that Friday, December 6, 2019 in Patras as yet another reason
to talk about the barbarism of the state and the cops and get back on the road all together!

ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLENCE IS A STATUS OF STATE AND CAPITALISM

TOWARDS THE PATRIARCHIC-CAPITALIST-POWER SYSTEM

Women's Initiative Against Patriarchy

and companions

https://ipposd.wordpress.com/2020/01/13/

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Message: 4






Dear all, As A-Radio Berlin we have recorded a call by the Coordinating Committee
for the Freedom of the Political Prisoners of October 18th. ---- You'll find the audio (to listen online or download in different sizes)
---- here: ----
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2020/01/11/chile-13-19-1-2020-woche-der-solidaritaet-mit-den-politischen-gefangenen-semana-de-solidaridad-con-lxs-presxs-politicxs/
---- Length: 2:43 min ---- You can find other English and Spanish language audios here: ---- http://aradio.blogsport.de/englishcastellano/.
*********** Text of the call: ---- After more than 80 days since the popular revolt started in Chile, the struggle and social organising
persists, with an unyielding conviction to confront and break with this economic and power model which has perpetuated inequalities,
injustices and abuses for decades.  Without a doubt, the revolt that is still in the air in Chile has meant an inflection point, a point of
no return in a long road of struggles, but it has also brought heavy costs with it: Hundreds and hundreds of prisoners of this territory.
Every week this number increases. In a clear phenomenon of massive arrests, the state looks to scare and
criminalise social protests. We talk about political prisoners of the
revolt because the massive arrests of those fighting after the explosion
of the revolt on the 18th of October responds to a political decision of
the state and not to technical or judiciary criteria, putting in
evidence the complicities of the different powers of the state, all with
the purpose of perpetuating the existing control model.

That is why we make this International call of solidarity with the
prisoners of the revolt, to expose the political condition of their
imprisonment and demand their immediate freedom. We extend this call and
appeal to the many initiatives and solidarity actions that may appear in
each territory.

International Week of Solidarity with the prisoners of the revolt in
Chile: January 13th to 19th 2020

Those who forget political prisoners forget the struggle!
Immediate freedom for the prisoners of the revolt!

Coordinating Committee for the Freedom of the Political Prisoners of
October 18th
****************

Among our last audios you can find:
* A feature about the first anniversary of the Yellow Vest Movement in
France, from the perspective of Toulouse:
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2020/01/02/a-radio-in-english-one-year-yellow-vest-movement-in-france-a-feature-from-toulouse/
* A series of audios from the social revolt in Chile:
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2019/10/20/zur-situation-in-chile-deesen/
* An interview about the Brexit from an anarchist perspective and the
situation in Great Britain:
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2019/09/13/a-radio-in-english-brexit-and-anarchism/
* An interview about the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 2018 in Novi Sad,
Serbia:
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2019/05/21/a-radio-in-english-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-2018-in-novi-sad-serbia/
* An interview on the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist
Prisoners 2018:
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2018/10/05/a-radio-in-english-the-international-week-of-solidarity-with-anarchist-prisoners-2018/

Enjoy! And please feel free to share!

A-Radio Berlin

ps.: We are on Twitter! Please feel welcome to follow us at @aradio_berlin!
ps2.: Please note: We are always looking for people willing to lend us a
hand with transcriptions and translations from Spanish or German into
English as well as people able to do voice recordings - in order to
amplify our international radio work. You can contact us at
aradio-berlin/at/riseup(dot)net!

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Message: 5





Dear Councillor Kerr, ---- After reading the article from the Evening Times yesterday and following the twitter feed from the weekend I feel
I need to redress the issue here, firstly the banner that you found offensive "f**k off you Tory c***s" was not being carried by some grubby
little Scottish Nationalists, but if you care to do some background work you will find that it was from the anarchist group Class War (it
did say on the banner) the very same group that was blamed for the infamous Poll Tax Riots in London that resulted in the abolishment of the
aforementioned tax and subsequently the demise of your beloved Maggie, may she rot in hell for her crimes against the working class, anyway
I digress, to be offended by a few words to me is hilarious, what you should be offended by are the words foodbank, child poverty, suicide,
disability death, zero hour contracts, minimum wage, universal credit, all the things that have culminated in the hatred towards your party,
couple this in with the devisive Brexit vote, the initiation of the exit from Europe by Cameron, the lies perpetrated by Johnson and Farage
et al and the all over rubbish that followed, your party's ploy worked it has split the country who now focus on all the wrong things that
stop us being united in coming together for the common good of the people, the continual lies by your party during the last election, the
contempt by your party front benchers towards the working class helps perpetuate the flames of contempt towards your party and will never
subside, you are a party of privilege out to make the rich richer and keep us working class in our place.
We will never hide our anger and will display this in the most offensive way possible to get out point across, you and all the other
politicians can continue to use lies and subterfuge, we will use offensive language, no one ever died over a few swear words, but over
120,000 vulnerable people have died over the Tory's Universal Credit scheme, there are now over 2000 foodbanks supplying aid to over 560,000
poverty stricken families, 225,000 people are on zero hour contracts, 425,000 are employed with minimum wage jobs, over 14 million people
live in conditions of poverty, this equates to 1 in 5 of the population of the UK, 8 million working aged adults, 4 million children and
almost 2 million pensioners... and you are outraged by the word C***t, this really sums up the real problem in Tory Britain in the 21st
Century, this is unacceptable, to use your quote at the end of the Evening Times article.

This was posted on the Councillors Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/classwarscotland/posts/2842261352504629

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Message: 6





The attention of all opponents of neoliberal capitalism in the world is still riveted to France, where the decisive struggle of the working
people with the onset of the ruling class continues. Representatives of the French trade unions admit that people from other European
countries turn to them and say: if you don't succeed now, then even more so ... In other words, the future of global social protest and
class resistance now may depend on the results of the struggle in France... ---- In these conditions, on January 11, France passed the next
day of protest of the strikers, which coincided with the "61st act" of the "yellow vests" movement. About half a million people took to the
streets of French cities, including 150 thousand in Paris. Marches took place in a tense atmosphere and escalated into violent clashes with
the police. So far, the protesters have not learned to turn the "astronauts" to flight, but hopefully this time will come ...
In Paris, protesters stoned the police, built barricades on the streets, and set fire to garbage cans. Many were in hoods and masks. During
the march, protesters smashed shop windows, chanting "We are here" and "Macron resigned." Security forces of the capitalist order flooded
the city with clouds of gas that flowed down the streets with poisonous muddy waves. Street battles in the 12th district lasted until late
in the evening, and continued in the darkness. During one of the incidents, a bank poster was set on fire, and a fire enveloped the facade
of a neighboring house ...

Demonstrations in other cities were as stormy as in Paris. In Nantes, fighting broke out near the prefecture, where police used tear gas and
water cannons. In Kan, after the official march ended, protesters tried to seize a hypermarket in the city center, and the police also used
gas. In Montpellier, the police fired gas, and everything flew into them that came into the hands of the protesters. In Rouen, crowds of
demonstrators tried to block streets in the city center with garbage bins and other objects, and police special forces tried to disperse
people with blows of clubs and gas ... ( https://www.rt.com/news/478024-rallies-france-tear- gas / ).

Transport workers are still at the forefront of the strike movement. Although the metro in Paris worked, on January 12 it functioned only in
the afternoon, and on January 13 all metro lines, except for two automated ones, operate only on a limited basis and only at peak hours. In
the commuter train system, traffic is halved. The railway connection in the country is broken by a third
(https://www.20minutes.fr/paris/2693167-20200112-greve-ratp-nette-amelioration-rer-b-1-train-2-metro-encore-tres-perturbe).

Under pressure from protests, the French government announced that it "temporarily removes" the item on raising the retirement age from the
draft pension reform. However, this does not mean a final rejection of such an increase. At the same time, authorities continue to insist on
other antisocial provisions of the project, including the introduction of a system of pension "points", which allows the government to cut
pensions in case of economic difficulties. The regime's concession is clearly aimed at splitting the protesters, since the "yellow" trade
union association of the FKDT has already welcomed this measure of the government as a desirable compromise.

At the same time, the transport unions, the pro-communist trade union of VKT and the socialist trade union "Force Uvrier" announced that
they intend to continue strikes and protests until the reform is completely canceled. New performances are planned for the current week
(https://www.rnd.de/politik/trotz-rentenreform-zugestandnissen-streik-in-frankreich-geht-weiter-TQKLE4FGVXOMDLQOR23TUZSFYQ.html;)

https://aitrus.info/node/5396

------------------------------

Message: 7






Here Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) offers the first of what we hope will become an ongoing series of interviews with workers
from various sectors who are having their well being and livelihoods damaged. We begin with an educator in Southland, South Island. Due to
the attitude and actions of his employers, he has asked to remain anonymous. ---- AWSM: Thanks for agreeing to this interview would you like
to tell us something about your work. ---- WORKER: Hi, I'm an educator with adults, young and the not so young, looking to upskill their
literacy ---- AWSM: Do you enjoy your work? ---- WORKER: Immensely. It's making a useful contribution to society, and while I am aware
really the main demands of my job are to make people fit for capitalism in terms of being upskilled to join the employment force, l like to
embed a lot of critical thinking skills around for example, checking sources of news articles and what bias may come from them, interpreting
the difference between facts and opinions, and seeing through advertising. In this way I like to think at least I'm giving people tools to
deal with the capitalist media system, or at least attempting to.

AWSM: Is there anything you don't like?

WORKER: Well yes, my terms and conditions leave a lot to be desired. For example, I was on a contract for a maximum of 20 hours, but if I
had no students I had no pay. So in reality because of the vagaries of the people we teach, who often have chaotic lifestyles, my hours
could vary anywhere between 10 and 20 in a given week, so obviously my pay reflected this. Also we have to take leave around the school
holidays. So effectively, because you can't earn enough annual leave to cover this amount you are without pay for around 8-10 weeks a year.

AWSM: Is the pay good?

WORKER: On paper it looks ok. I won't go into the exact figures, but it is $30+ an hour and seems generous. The reality however is very
different. I get paid what is known as an inclusive rate. This means I get deductions for my holiday pay, which I know isn't that unusual,
but also I have to pay the kiwisaver employer contributions out of my pay, which was a new thing for me and totally surprised me as I didn't
even know that was a thing. Also we don't get paid for any time we spend preparing lessons or marking, and it is expected we are in the
building at least half an hour before any class that we are teaching starts. Another thing that winds me up is once a month we are expected
to attend staff meetings, without pay, that can drag on for over 2 hours, thanks to two managers who will talk and talk interminably about
nothing much - of course they will be getting paid as they enjoy the luxury of 40 hour contracts.

AWSM: In the previous question you said you were on a contract with a maximum of 20 hours, did this change?

WORKER: Yes, at the end of Term 2 last year I was asked if I would like to take on a new course that involved 40 hours per week teaching. I
accepted and they put me on a salaried contract which actually saw my pay drop by about $8 per hour. The course actually involved a lot more
than 40 hours a week with gathering resources and marking, and of course, such is the lot of a salaried worker, you don't get overtime - but
of course if you ever leave early then it is seen as theft of time. I got reprimanded once for leaving an hour early for a doctors
appointment - this having worked for the previous 4 saturdays above my 40 hours to catch up with my workload.

AWSM: Things like that must drive you mad?

WORKER: Honestly, I have been in the workforce for a long time now and I have no expectation of being treated differently. I really don't
think I have ever had a boss who I had any respect for and would treat you decently.

AWSM: Are you still on that contract now?

WORKER: No. As soon as my course finished they put me back on a 20 hour/Zero hour contract. Presumably so they don't have to pay me fully
for public holidays. When I return at the beginning of next term I will be offered the 40 hour contract again.

AWSM: How do your colleagues view their working conditions?

WORKER: No-one really talks about it. I try and get others involved in conversations but they really don't want to rock the boat at all.

AWSM: Have you ever suggested organising your workplace?

WORKER: Ha, yes, and the response was mostly bemused looks. The place I work is one branch of a nationwide organisation and I tried reaching
out to others around the country. The company has an intranet with a messaging service as part of it. I tried to start a topic on there to
see how other tutors felt about the working conditions. It literally lasted less than half an hour and was taken down by management at the
head office, followed by a phone call from the CEO to my line manager to tell her to have a word with me not to do this again. A few of us
did start up a Facebook group to chat away from the eyes of management, and they were eager to try and organise, but they all found better
jobs and left before we got very far.

AWSM: Thanks for chatting to us, is there anything else you would like to add?

WORKER: Not really, I think you can see what I have to put up with, but the saddest part is that it's not unusual to have such poor
conditions. A lot of the people I teach get seasonal work in the local pack houses. They are mostly on zero hour contracts, and can be
called in or cancelled with very little notice. At busy periods they can work 14 hours a day for over 7 days at a time. I think that a whole
generation has grown up since the economy was given a dose of neo-liberalism, and they can't really remember a time anymore when proper
contracts with decent conditions were considered the norm. The working conditions they have now are just seen as the way things are.
Hopefully, one day things will change as people get pushed ever harder for less return.

END
Related Link: https://awsm.nz/?p=4390

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31724

------------------------------